How can we avert ecological collapse and curb climate breakdown in a just way?

Our planet is on fire. The years 2023 and 2024 have been the hottest recorded. Six out of the nine planetary boundaries have been broken. Scientists warn that if warming reaches or exceeds 2 °C this century, by the end of the century, anthropogenic global warming will result in 1 billion deaths. According to the UN Emissions Gap 2024 report, the predicted 2030 greenhouse gases of the world still need to decrease by 42 per cent for the 1.5°C pathway, compared with 2019 levels, and 28 per cent for the 2 °C pathway. At present, the projected increase is 2,6 °C in this century. 

Despite the signing of multiple international agreements on Climate and Nature, citizens lack the information and agency to meaningfully engage in how their countries can achieve targets set in the agreements. The Climate-Ecology Blueprint provides a pragmatic guide on how to reach these targets in its stipulations. You can scroll down the page to upload the Blueprint informed by experts.

The Climate-Ecology Blueprint does not shy away from envisaging a route towards a society with new sets of values and pillars for a good life within planetary boundaries. It addresses environmental destruction at different stages of consumption and challenges the current economic paradigm of GDP measures of growth and consumerism. It also provides a set of criteria that guards against climate and ecological injustice and greenwashing. Core to the Climate-Ecology Blueprint is reaching agreement through deliberation and it incorporates a Citizens’ Assembly as the means to reach targets through compromise.

The Climate & Nature Emergency Hub advocates heterogenous ways of acting in the world to stem the worst consequences of the climate and ecological crises, within and beyond the limits of policy and existing state structures. In line with acknowledging the creativity of all species, we seek to expand traditional avenues of policy-making and incorporate Art as a key for forging a future out of the crisis.

Flip tiles throughout the website! 

Atmosphere

Earth’s atmosphere is composed of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and one percent other gases. These gases are found in atmospheric layers (troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere) defined by unique features such as temperature and pressure. The atmosphere protects life on earth by shielding it from incoming ultraviolet (UV) radiation, keeping the planet warm through insulation, and preventing extremes between day and night temperatures. The sun heats layers of the atmosphere causing it to convect driving air movement and weather patterns around the world.
(Ref. National Geographic)

Hydrosphere

We live on a blue planet, with oceans and seas covering more than 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. Oceans feed us, regulate our climate, and generate most of the oxygen we breathe. (UNEP) ‘Only 0.5 per cent of water on Earth is useable and available freshwater – and climate change is dangerously affecting that supply. Over the past twenty years, terrestrial water storage – including soil moisture, snow and ice – has dropped at a rate of 1 cm per year, with major ramifications for water security (WMO)’.

Cryosphere

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) states that “over the last decades, global warming has led to widespread shrinking of the cryosphere, with mass loss from ice sheets and glaciers, reduction in snow cover,  Arctic sea ice extent and thickness, and increased permafrost temperatures”. In the Antarctic, populations of Emperor Penguins have declined by up to 50% in some places and one colony off the Antarctic Peninsula has disappeared completely. Presently, the most significant  threat to them is climate change due to changes in the sea ice on which they depend. (WWF).

Pedosphere

The pedosphere is the soil mantle of the Earth. This concept evolved from the basic scientific concept of soils as specific bodies in nature that developed in time and space in situ at the land surface due to processes resulting from interactions of soil-forming factors. These factors are parent material, climate, organisms, topography, and time; one could conceive of the pedosphere as representing the interface at the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.

Soils are dynamic and diverse natural systems that lie at the interface between earth, air, water, and life. They are critical ecosystem service providers for the sustenance of humanity. The improved conservation and management of soils is among the great challenges and opportunities we face in the 21st century.(Ref. Nature Education ). 

Flora

Biodiversity includes the flora of mangroves which are under threat, yet this precious habitat provides valuable protection for communities at risk from sea-level rises and severe weather events caused by climate change. Research has shown that in their ability to store carbon (‘carbon sequestration’), coastal mangroves outperform most other forests. Mangroves are the only trees that thrive in salty waters and improve water quality by filtering out nutrients and sediments. They are also teeming with life: more than 1,500 plant and animal species depend on mangroves. This includes fish and birds who use the shallow waters beneath mangrove trees as nurseries. (Ref. UNEP)

Fauna

‘Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are important pollinators of many native plant species and agricultural crops, particularly in temperate and high-elevation regions, and are associated with vegetation abundance and diversity. Over the past century however, several bumblebee species declined in range and abundance. Threats include habitat loss and fragmentation, pesticides, parasites, pathogen spillover, and climate change. (Ref.Climate change-driven range losses among bumblebee species are poised to accelerate, Sirois-Delisle and Kerr in Nature 2018)

PDF

A Blueprint for the Climate-Nature Emergency

(*derived and adapted from the Climate & Ecology Bill; please note: the  Climate- Nature Emergency Hub is not affiliated with  Zero Hour )

Choose language to read blueprint